Burns
by Marlicat
Summary: Walburga screamed at the charred and blackened tapestry. She screamed until her voice went hoarse and ultimately vanished.


Walburga Black stared at the family tapestry, breathing heavily.

**_Andromeda Black_**

She pressed her wand to the tapestry and watched with a kind of satisfied horror as the letters curled and burnt. A _Mudblood..._

_**Sirius Black**_

How had she gone wrong? It was with a choked sob that she turned her eldest son's name into a spot of blackened wall.

_**Narcissa Black**_

Something like fury burned with her niece's name. Didn't they realize what they were giving up?

_**Regulus Black**_

Her baby... she'd been so sure that he was on the right pureblood path. But he'd betrayed her, and she watched his name fall to the flame...

_**Bellatrix Black**_

They'd all betrayed her... the entire generation of Black children. How? How had they gone so astray? She held her wand to Bellatrix's spot a little longer than necessary and her sister's name caught fire too. Walburga jumped back with a screech. _No!_ She quickly doused Druella's spot, but it was already charred, and now both her deceased husband, Orion, and Abraxas Malfoy had caught fire as well. She put them out, but not before the rest of the Malfoy line burned as well.

Walburga pointed her wand quickly, spouting water. Her children, her offspring, her family-- how did it happen?

----

_"So," Bellatrix said. The younger generation of Blacks sat awkwardly with their parents at the family dinner._

_"Is there a boy that you're interested in, Andromeda?" asked Druella. Andromeda jerked her head up from her plate of food, which she had been staring at, with a look of horror on her face. Bellatrix saved her sister. _

_"Oh-- I think she has her eyes on Yaxley a little more than she should."_

_Druella beamed at her daughter. "Excellent!"  
_

_"What about you, Cissy? Bella?"_

_"Oh, no one in particular," they said in unison. _

_Cygnus turned to his nephews. "Have you two met any respectable young women?"_

_"I've met several respectable young women," said Sirius, who had lately been more irritable than usual with his family's ways. "They're just not pureblood."_

_Walburga went pink. "Sirius..." she said warningly._

_"Matter of fact, some of them are--"_

_"SIRIUS!" Regulus snapped. "Hold your tongue, will you?" Narcissa sent Sirius a pleading look and the boy quieted, fuming. _

_"You don't agree with them any more than I do," he muttered furiously under his breath._

_"No, no, let the boy talk," said Cygnus. "He's a _Gryffindor_, isn't he, he should have the guts to speak his mind."_

_Sirius's jaw was clenched and they could hear across the table the sound of his teeth grinding. But all three of his cousins and his younger brother were sending him "Please shut up, Sirius" looks and, barely, Sirius refrained from a biting remark._

_"I tho__ught as much," Cygnus said smugly. "You know in your heart that Mudbloods don't deserve--"_

_It was the last straw._

_"I know several Muggleborns who could best your pathetic potions, Uncle. And several more who could outstrip any Charm Aunt Druella performed. One in particular could transfigure you all into weasels before you could blink. You're wrong. You and your stupid pureblood mania-- it's _wrong_."_

_Walburga leapt to her feet. "Get-- out--" she hissed._

_"Gladly," Sirius retorted, glaring. "Cissy, Bella, Andromeda, Reg-- I'll see you."_

_He stood and didn't bother to pick up his chair as it fell to the ground with a clatter._

_"Ted asked me to marry him." Andromeda said quietly. But in the stormy silence, no one could fail to hear her._

_"Ted?" Druella asked sharply. "Who's Ted?"_

_"'Dromeda, no!" Narcissa whimpered._

_Andromeda ignored her. "Ted Tonks. He asked me to marry him and I... I said yes."_

_"Tonks is not a wizarding name! Is he a half-blood, at least?"_

_Andromeda shook her head. "Ted's Muggleborn."_

_Cygnus and Druella stared at Andromeda, spluttering. "A Mudblood? Andromeda Black, I _forbid _you!" Cygnus shrieked._

_"You can't control who she marries!" Bellatrix growled at them. _

_"Bellatrix! A Mudblood! Where did we go wrong, that you would defend a Mudblood?" Druella snarled._

_Walburga stood too, glaring at Andromeda as she stared at her plate, Bellatrix as she argued with her parents, and Sirius as he watched the scene. "That's quite enough!" she shouted._

_"Auntie Walburga, surely you can understand?" Bellatrix pleaded. "Andromeda _loves_ him, and he loves her too. Just because his parents were Muggles does not mean that he's inferior or any less right for Andromeda. They make each other happy, so can't you forgive his parentage?"_

_Walburga was silent. She shared a look with Cygnus and Druella, who nodded. Catching the motion, Andromeda looked up hopefully at her parents._

_"Leave." Walburga said. "All three of you. I don't care where you go. You are no longer our concern, and no longer our children. Blood traitors."_

_Narcissa gave a dry sob. Regulus stared at his cousins and older brother worriedly. _

_"Narcissa, Regulus, up to bed."_

_"No," Regulus said decisively, his facial expression clearing. "I'm going with them."_

_"No," Walburga gasped. "Not you too. I thought you were true, I thought you wanted to join the Dark Lord's group of followers."_

_"I lied," Regulus told her steadily._

_"Fine!" Walburga yelled. "Leave! You're not the son I thought you were anyway!"_

_The four cousins stormed upstairs, and, in a quick flurry of banging, had packed their belongings and left the Black house._

_"Narcissa-- come." Cygnus said. "We're going home."_

_Narcissa was crying. She stood, but did not make to leave with her parents. Taking a shaky breath, she spoke._

_"I j-just want you to know th-that I was always for them telling y-you how they felt. I-I said you--" she stifled her sobbing. "I said to them that you loved us, you loved us enough to not care about Muggleborns. And it h-hurts so, so much that I was wrong. Accio handbag!" she cried. "I'm going with them. You aren't my family anymore." And she ran out the front door. "Wait up!" The three parents could hear her cry._

Walburga screamed at the charred and blackened tapestry. She screamed until her voice went hoarse and ultimately vanished.

Amongst all the scorched tapestry there was but one name not blackened. Walburga Black was all alone one her precious family tree.

---

The five cousins stood silently at the end of the street. Narcissa shivered in the cold night air but did not look back at 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Where are we going to go?" Regulus asked in a low voice.

"None of our friends will take us in, not knowing that we've been disowned." Bellatrix said quietly. "They only ever liked us because we were Blacks."

"And we're not." Andromeda said firmly. "We're not Blacks anymore. Myself, I'm going to choose my new friends a lot more carefully now."

"We may not be Blacks anymore, but we're still family." Narcissa told them.

"Yes, Cissy, but we have nowhere to go." Bellatrix said.

"James," Sirius said. He appeared to have come out of a stupor.

"Are you kidding, Sirius?" Bellatrix asked skeptically. "He _hates_ us." Regulus and Narcissa nodded.

"Nah," Sirius said. "He hates who he thinks you are. I'll explain to him. He's my best friend-- the Potters will give us someplace to stay."

"I won't be there long, I'm moving in with Teddy." Andromeda seemed a lot happier now, away from her parents.

Sirius stepped up to the street and held out his right hand. When the Knight Bus arrived with a bang, the five teens boarded their transportation to a different destiny.


End file.
